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“They’re trying to kill the Library!”
“Drop your calculators, and come out with your wallets up . . .”
A crowd of around 20 Locals, including one skeptical council member, attended this morning’s”See Party” meeting of RIG the Paper (Readers Input Group). This in response to my “Call to Minds” column, looking for ways to keep the Library going, without a new levy. A half-dozen volunteered to take a cursory look at various department’s non-staffing budget lines, the likes of small tools, supplies, subscriptions, etc. Next week’s RIG (open to all, just like the Community Club but without a membership fee) will come up with Freedom of Information requests, to try to look a little deeper at some of the most “curious” budget lines.
In less than a month, can RIG find $300,000 of fat in the Ocean Shores budget, without the need for an additional levy? If not, will the dubious local Editor make good on his promise, to write a column endorsing the levy?
Or is this just a thinly-disguised plot, as one has suggested, to kill the Library? Stay tuned . . .
You forgot that there is an elementary school in the city and also one in Pacific Beach. Also, they have a library with many computers at the high school already. The issue for the students is use of a facility after 3 PM when school is out. Also, the adults in the North Beach that use the library.
Now if the school district would donate that land and build a building, we could get Timberland to run it and bypass all the city issues. Maybe that is a good way to go. Maybe there is a building in the North Beach or Hogan’s Corner that could be the new library. Then OS residents could either buy a card from Timberland or vote to be annexed. Either way, we would not be giving the city one red cent!!!
personally, i think the city should get out of the library business. with the new building going up at the high school one could be put on campus.
Great meeting with Timberland Library Mr. Crose. We found out what they will give us for 12 cents more!! How about 6 to 8 staff vs. 3 staff. That would be a start. We found out that no-one from the city has contacted him about joining or contracting. We found out that they offer lots of services we currently do not have. We also found out that there are ways around the city holding our needs of a library hostage. Tom should have been there.
aw,citizen, quit making sense. you’ll get a bad reputation.
why do we need a library? we now have an animal control/code enforcement officer.
Has anyone asked Public Works about how much we get for all that sand we “mine” off the beach? How much per cubic foot are we getting paid? The State is making 25 dollars per cubic foot selling it to the cranberry bog owners. How much are we charging builders or others (stables) for that sand? I bet that could fund some of our library needs.
We need to see if that new software is worth the money we paid for it. It should show us the detailed spending for all departments. If it does what the old system did, then we have been taken. We should know where each red cent has been spent and specifically for what. The ability to drill down to the most basic data is what is needed. Flying at 40,000 feet needs to stop. Hopefully the RIG group can get feet on the ground and dig up all the hidden bunkers of slush funds. Too much loose money in our city government. Look what happened between the Stafford Creek Prison and Aberdeen. They went from 84K to around 50K in that contract. How, competitive bidding and hard nose people at the prison. Now if only the city could do that.
The only people that are trying to kill the library are the mayor and city council, by curtailing the library budget. Put the blame where blame is due.
“In less than a month, can RIG find $300,000 of fat in the Ocean Shores budget, without the need for an additional levy?”
Even if they do find extra money, the real trick will be to get the city to spend it on the library. Their posted priorities from an earlier council meeting shows that the Library and Interpretive Center are dead last on their list. We need a dog catcher and more “sidewalks to nowhere” first.